Lack of proper bus services for bertha and alice streets in goodna.

[techblitz]

So earlier in the week I took the 524 route for the first time to the rather lightly used mill st stop which is obviously the quickest way for the 524 to st ives from the train station.

http://tiny.cc/hxszdz

The mill st stop only gets a handful of boardings per month at best (origin - destination data)....which is not good enough..
When I pressed the button the driver cheekily said......"you actually getting off here? Who the heck uses this stop??"

There is some action on mill st eg: some elderly residential, the now closed weroona hotel(bought out by the cecil),bit of small business and some houses but there is simply too much empty space along this street to warrant sending the 524 down mill st vs completely denying bertha and alice sts basic public transport to st ives and goodna station.

I would like the 524 to be re-routed to st ives/ goodna station via bertha, alice and queen sts.

bertha st >> http://tiny.cc/mcuzdz
alice st >> http://tiny.cc/emuzdz

It will add an extra 10 minutes to the service  each way which I think is reasonable vs the holes that it will fill..

Some of these areas are hilly.....I have been doing the walk for years up those hills between goodna station via mill/alice sts and quite frankly am sick of it...
Alice st has the cecil hotel but also has a daycare centre which needs proper public transport access for mothers who cant drive...

So what do you think ozbob? It will probably bristle a few hairs this extension and the route will suffer some painful delays down queen st during peaks but unless we can get a completely new route in there  or rework the 522 then it looks to be the only solution..

[ozbob]

For those not familiar with the bus routes around Goodna, here is the TransLink bus route map of the area



What TB is referring to is the fact that most of Goodna proper does not have a bus service!  The 524 scouts around the western periphery, the 522 does the same around the east.  Some parts of this bus vacuum are in ' Roam Zone C ' for FlexiLink ( https://translink.com.au/sites/default/files/assets/resources/travel-with-us/taxi-and-community-transport/2016-flexilink.pdf ).  But hardly satisfactory.

I am hoping that there might be some reform for Western in 2020.  There is an aversion to putting a bus on Queen St, I guess because of the traffic issues.  I have raised with ICC a number of times now the need to sort out the roundabout at St Ives, and have suggested some solutions.  It is a giant mess.

Goodna got well and truly shafted when the Ipswich Highway was upgraded.  There were better options for getting traffic onto the Ipswich Highway.  Traffic from Redbank Plains etc all is channelled into Queen St and through the roundabout to get up onto the Highway.  It is an absolute cluster fuk.

Ideally there should be a bus route from Goodna rail station straight up Queen St and onto Redbank Plains.  Such a route would be very popular as opposed to the scenic tours on the 522 and 524.   

[techblitz]

Route 523....
Goodna definitely needs at the very minimum an extra bus route to plug all the holes....
463 extension could also be an option to plug the bertha/alice gap..
And as you mentioned ozbob... 3 of the 4 routes essentially skirt Goodna....so technically only has one proper bus route servicing it....nowhere near enough given the train stations patronage...

[James]

Queen St (Goodna) looks like a local high street/suburban shops which is trying to function as an arterial. As a consequence, it does both roles terribly. If the traffic wasn't so bad, you would simply put a BUZ down State Route 61 and be done with it. The speed, directness and housing density in the area would make the route a roaring success.

I hadn't actually realised how shocking the route network out west was. With the 524 going on urban safari like it does, I'm surprised anybody uses it. At least send it down Stuart or Albert St if Queen St is really bad, at least the service is direct then. Plenty of options out there...

[ozbob]

https://translink.com.au/sites/default/files/assets/timetables/170109-524,525,526.pdf







https://translink.com.au/sites/default/files/assets/timetables/170109-522.pdf

[ozbob]

^

[techblitz]

With the 524 going on urban safari like it does, I'm surprised anybody uses it.

not really surprising.....Goodna has many who simply cannot afford to both drive and use public transport...or pick up their kids from the train station after school.....so the 524 is the only option...
For last year the 524 averaged 15 passengers per service........it is definitely pulling its weight vs a lot of other rail feeders out there.

[ozbob]

524 M.I.D.     < pumps up chest > 

(524 is my local bus)